This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2001-77569, filed Dec. 8, 2001, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted microwave oven which allows a user to easily repair and replace a magnetron installed in a machine room of the wall-mounted microwave oven.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a wall-mounted microwave oven is installed above, for example, an oven range, and serves to exhaust gas and smoke produced from an operation of the oven range positioned under the wall-mounted microwave oven, in addition to its original function of cooking foods.
FIG. 1 shows that a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven is designed so as to have a rear surface of a body 1 fixed to a wall 100 of a building. The body 1 is partitioned into a cooking cavity (not shown) and a machine room 3 which receives various electrical parts therein. An exhaust path 4 is formed along both a lower portion of the body 1 and a rear portion of the machine room 3 in order to exhaust gas and smoke produced from the oven range (not shown) positioned under the wall-mounted microwave oven. An exhaust fan 5 is installed on an upper portion of the rear surface of the body 1. Such a construction allows the gas and smoke produced by the oven range to exhaust to the atmosphere as the exhaust fan 5 is operated.
A control panel 6 is mounted on a front surface of the machine room 3, and provided with a plurality of buttons (not shown) which control the operation of the wall-mounted microwave oven. Similarly to the construction of general microwave ovens, a variety of electrical parts, for example, a magnetron 7, a high voltage transformer 8, a high voltage condenser 9 and a cooling fan 10 are installed in the machine room 3. In this case, the magnetron 7 is mounted on an upper wall of the machine room 3. A waveguide duct 11 is installed on the outside of the upper wall of the machine room 3 so as to guide high-frequency electromagnetic waves from the magnetron 7 to the cooking cavity (not shown). The high voltage transformer 8 is mounted on a bottom wall of the machine room 3, and the high voltage condenser 9 is mounted in the rear portion of the machine room 3. The cooling fan 10 is installed on a support plate 10a which partitions the machine room 3 into front and rear chambers, and forms a path which sucks atmospheric air into the machine room 3. A suction grille 12 is formed on the front surface of the machine room 3 at a position above the control panel 6, and cools the parts inside the machine room 3 with air flowing into the machine room 3 as the cooling fan 10 is operated.
During an operation of such a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven, parts inside the machine room 3 frequently malfunction, requiring them to be repaired or replaced with new ones. Of these parts, the magnetron 7 which generates the high-frequency electromagnetic waves malfunctions more frequently than the other parts inside the machine room 3.
With a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven, it is difficult to repair or replace the magnetron 7 because the body 1 is fixed to the wall 100 of a building, and the magnetron 7 is mounted on the upper wall of the machine room 3. In addition, the wall-mounted microwave oven has a complicated structure as compared to general type microwave ovens.
To repair or replace the magnetron 7 of a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven, the body 1 has to be removed from the wall 100 of the building and then completely disassembled into parts. Therefore, repairing and/or replacing parts in a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven is difficult and inconvenient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted microwave oven which allows parts, such as a magnetron to be repaired or replaced without removing a body of the wall-mounted microwave oven from a wall.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provide a wall-mounted microwave oven comprising a body which is mounted on a wall and partitioned into a cooking cavity and a machine room, a magnetron which generates high-frequency electromagnetic waves and installed in the machine room, and a control panel which is detachably mounted on the body in front of the machine room, wherein the magnetron is mounted on a bottom surface of the machine room so as to be removable from the machine room without removing the body from the wall.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the wall-mounted microwave oven is provided with fastening means which is tightened or loosened from the outside of a lower end of the body so as to removably mount the magnetron.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a cover plate is detachably attached to the lower end of the body and spaced apart from the bottom surface of the machine room.
According yet another aspect of the present invention, a cooling fan assembly is installed in the machine room and an opening is formed on a front surface of the body at a position behind the control panel, so as to allow machine room components including the cooling fan assembly and the magnetron to be taken out from the machine room through the opening.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a waveguide duct is provided to extend from the bottom surface of the machine room at a position under the magnetron to a bottom surface of the cooking cavity so as to guide the high-frequency electromagnetic waves from the magnetron to the cooking cavity.